In a vacuum multilayer glass panel comprising a pair of glass plates with their circumferential portions being sealed and depressurized, the panel is subjected to a compressive force due to the atmospheric pressure from the outside of the glass plates. For this reason, between the pair of glass plates, a plurality of gap retention members having a high compression strength are disposed with a predetermined spacing from each other. When an external force is applied to the vacuum multilayer glass panel, its glass plates will be warped so that the glass plates will be moved relative to each other along the direction of the faces thereof. In the course of this, the gap retention members can be displaced or destroyed, or in an even worse case, concentration of load at some limited portion(s) of the glass plates may sometimes cause breakage of the glass plates.
Therefore, the vacuum multilayer glass panel is configured such that a cushioning layer is formed between the respective glass plate and the gap retention members in order to suppress occurrence of such local stress concentration to the glass plates and also to reduce the frictional resistance therebetween for facilitating movement of the glass plates relative to the gap retention members. For instance, in the case of a technique disclosed in Patent Document 1, a gap retention member includes a core material having a high compression strength and a cushioning layer provided at least at one end portion of the core material and made of a soft material such as a soft metal. As the soft material can easily be deformed, the gap retention member can conform to the glass plate more smoothly, thus enhancing the strength of the glass plate against a shearing stress.